{"id":166369,"date":"2025-10-01T02:33:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T02:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/what-is-a-government-shutdown-and-why-is-this-years-threat-more-serious-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T02:33:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T02:33:19","slug":"what-is-a-government-shutdown-and-why-is-this-years-threat-more-serious-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/what-is-a-government-shutdown-and-why-is-this-years-threat-more-serious-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a government shutdown and why is this year\u2019s threat more serious? – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

US government will shut down on 1 October if Congress cannot reach a funding agreement. Here\u2019s what to know
US politics \u2013 latest updates<\/a>
The federal government is once again on the brink of a shutdown, unless Congress<\/a> can reach a funding agreement before the start of the new fiscal year, on 1 October.
With the clock ticking and both Democrats and Republicans seemingly dug in, there is little time left to avoid a lapse in government funding. And in a sharp escalation, the White House has threatened permanent mass layoffs of government workers in the event of a shutdown, adding to the roughly 300,000 <\/a>it forced out earlier this year.
If a compromise isn\u2019t reached by midnight on 30 September, parts of the government will begin shutting down. Until Congress acts, a wide range of federal services could be temporarily halted or disrupted as certain agencies cease all non-essential functions.
In a polarized Washington, with the chambers narrowly divided, shutdown threats have become a feature of recent congressional budget battles. A standoff in 2018, during Trump\u2019s first term, resulted in a 34-day shutdown, the longest in the modern era. At the time, roughly 800,000 of the federal government\u2019s 2.1 million employees were sidelined without pay.
The federal government\u2019s new fiscal year begins on Wednesday, and Congress has yet to strike an agreement on a short-term funding bill.
Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, are refusing to compromise and in effect daring Democrats to reject a stopgap measure that would extend funding levels, mostly at current levels, through 21 November. That bill narrowly passed the House but fell short in the Senate earlier this month.
Donald Trump<\/a> has said he expects the government to shut down this week. \u201cIf it has to shut down, it\u2019ll have to shut down,\u201d he said on Friday<\/a>, blaming the Democrats.
Republican and Democratic congressional leaders remained at an impasse after a Monday-afternoon meeting with Trump at the White House. \u201cI think we\u2019re headed into a shutdown because the Democrats<\/a> won\u2019t do the right thing,\u201d JD Vance told reporters after the summit.
Democrats, locked out of power in Washington, have little leverage, but their votes are needed to overcome the filibuster in the Senate. Democrats are demanding an extension of subsidies that limit the cost of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and are set to expire, a rollback of Medicaid cuts<\/a> made in Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and the restoration of funding to public media that was cut<\/a> in the rescissions package.
Leaving the White House on Monday, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said: \u201cThere are still large differences between us.\u201d
Congressional Democrats are under pressure to use their leverage to stand up to Trump and his administration. In March, Schumer lent<\/a> the necessary Democratic votes to approve a Republican-written short-term funding measure without securing any concessions \u2013 a move that infuriated the party\u2019s base<\/a>.
This time, the impact on federal workers could be even more severe. In a memo released last week, the White House\u2019s office of management and budget (OMB) told agencies not just to prepare for temporary furloughs but for permanent layoffs<\/a> in the event of a shutdown.
The memo directed agencies to ready reduction-in-force notices for federal programs whose funding sources would lapse in the event of a shutdown and are \u201cnot consistent with the president\u2019s priorities\u201d.
The OMB led the administration\u2019s earlier efforts to shrink the federal workforce<\/a> as part of a broader government efficiency campaign led by Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d.
In a statement on Thursday, AFL-CIO\u2019s president, Liz Shuler, said government employees had \u201calready suffered immensely\u201d this year under the Trump administration\u2019s vast cuts to the federal workforce. \u201cThey are not pawns for the president\u2019s political games,\u201d she said.
Asked about the memo on Thursday, Trump blamed Democrats, saying a shutdown was what the party wanted. \u201cThey never change,\u201d he said.
At a news conference, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said on Thursday that Democrats \u201cwill not be intimidated\u201d by the Trump administration\u2019s threats to fire more federal employees if the federal government shuts down. He added that his message to Russell Vought<\/a>, the head of OMB, was simple: \u201cGet lost.\u201d
In the event of a full or partial government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal workers may be furloughed or required to work without pay. Approximately 750,000 federal employees will be furloughed each day of a government shutdown, according to an estimate<\/a> by the congressional budget office released on Tuesday.
Operations deemed essential \u2013 such as social security, Medicare, military duties, immigration enforcement and air traffic control \u2013 would continue, but other services may be disrupted or delayed. Mail delivery and post office operations would continue without interruption.
Agencies have been releasing updated contingency plans in the event of a shutdown. The Department of Education said nearly all its federal employees would be furloughed, while most of the Department of Homeland Security workforce would remain on the job.
The effect can be wide-ranging and potentially long-lasting. Previous shutdowns have closed national parks and the Smithsonian museums in Washington, slowed air travel, delayed food-safety inspections, and postponed immigration hearings.
While the broader economy may not feel the effects immediately, analysts warn that a prolonged shutdown could slow growth, disrupt markets and erode public trust.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US government will shut down on 1 October if Congress cannot reach a funding agreement. Here\u2019s what to knowUS politics \u2013 latest updatesThe federal government is once again on the brink of a shutdown, unless Congress can reach a funding agreement before the start of the new fiscal year, on 1 October.With the clock ticking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}